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WEEK OF THE DEAD IV: Image’s Eric Stephenson

As Executive Director of Image Comics, Eric Stephenson has seen a great many properties come through the fold of the San Francisco publisher. Some titles flourish, others disappear almost as rapidly as they arrived. Occasionally, one strikes a chord with readers and can be classified a legitimate phenomenon.

One such comic book is “The Walking Dead,” the best-selling black-and-white zombie epic written by Robert Kirkman and illustrated by Charlie Adlard. In anticipation of the series’ landmark fiftieth issue, CBR News has over the past few days spoken with Kirkman and Adlard, previewed pages from the hotly anticipated issue, and we’re joined now by Eric Stephenson to look back on the series beginnings and to talk about what the book means to Image today.

Kirkman was hardly an unknown quantity to Stephenson when the writer came to Image with his idea for a zombie drama. “By the time Robert started talking to us about ‘The Walking Dead,’ he’d done his first ‘SuperPatriot’ miniseries and we were pretty far along on ‘Invincible,'” Eric Stephenson told CBR News. “I don’t remember if he pitched ‘Tech Jacket’ or ‘The Walking Dead’ first, but he definitely wanted to do more work at Image, and he was really excited about doing a zombie book. Part of that was down to his enthusiasm for zombie flicks, but he was also interested in doing something other than superheroes.”

“The Walking Dead” #51 on sale in July

Stephenson recalled, however, that Kirkman’s pitch was met with some concern. “We liked it, but I know Jim Valentino [then-Publisher of Image Comics] did feel it needed to be something more than ‘just a zombie book.’ Zombie comics weren’t really a sure thing at that point, and I think Jim felt there needed to be more of a hook than ‘Hey, zombies!’ Robert and I wound up discussing the book quite a bit after Jim had voiced his reservations, and my position was that it looked and read well, but that Jim wanted to know would make ‘The Walking Dead’ stand out from other zombie titles.

“Robert told me that there were going to be some other elements to the story,” Stephenson continued, “some sci-fi oriented stuff that would set the whole concept apart from other zombie titles. I think the idea was that the planet was being prepared for an alien invasion or something like that. Whatever it was, I passed that on to Valentino and he seemed to think that sounded different and interesting enough to give the title a green light. A little later, probably around issue six, I asked Robert what was going on with the alien invasion, because it didn’t seem like he was setting that up at all. Robert laughed and said that was never going to happen, that he’d just pulled that out of thin air in an effort to convince us the book was going to be different.”

Early on, Stephenson realized the “The Walking Dead” was a bona fide hit. The numbers told the story. “The first issue sold out right away, and then the second one did, too. Reorders were very strong right from the beginning and sales started trending upwards with issue three. There was the standard drop with issue two, but then it went right back up with three and kept climbing from there.”

“The Walking Dead” is also available as a series of softcover and hardcover collected editions

Image moved quickly to support it’s new breakout title and sustain its heat. “Early on, we supported the book with things like free copies to retailers and overships,” said Stephenson, “but I think the most important thing we did was rush out that first trade and make sure it came out alongside issue seven. We’ve worked very closely with Robert to make sure ‘The Walking Dead’ is always in print, in as many different formats as possible and I think that’s helped immeasurably in terms of expanding the book’s audience, both within the direct market and beyond.”

Conversely, “The Walking Dead” has also served Image in return. Asked if “The Walking Dead’s” high profile has helped Image as a whole, Stephenson responded, “In some cases, sure. We have a pretty diverse line of books, though, so not everyone who enjoys ‘The Walking Dead’ is going to be interested in the full line. Some horror fans or zombie fans just aren’t into superheroes or fantasy or sci-fi or whatever. ‘The Walking Dead’ probably brings more eyes to our books, but it really depends on the tastes of the individual readers as to whether or not they’re going to branch out from there.”

“It’s certainly put the lie to that old myth that Image only publishes a certain type of superhero comic,” Stephenson added.

“The Walking Dead” #50 variant cover by Erik Larsen

In an industry that seemingly became infatuated with the zombie genre, “The Walking Dead” survived this invasion of the undead, as its fiftieth issue can attest. Stephenson has his belief on what has set the book apart from and caused it to rise above from the rest of the zombie books that have been published in the last several years. “I think the appeal of the book is the characters,” he said. “It’s not just a zombie book. At 50 issues, I can’t imagine anyone’s buying the book just to look at more decaying flesh.”

It’s a view Stephenson confirms with his favorite moment form the series thus far. “Issue six was an early favorite of mine, I thought the scene at the end of the issue, with Carl and Shane, was really well done,” he said, referring to when the ostensible lead of the series, Rick, confronts his partner Shane while hunting. Shane preferred it when Rick was thought to be dead, and even had an affair with Rick’s wife, Lori. Shane attempted to get that status quo back by killing Rick, but Rick’s son Carl defends his father by shooting Shane in the throat. Afterward, he cried, “It isn’t like killing the dead ones.” Rick assured him that “it never should be.”

“I’m not a big zombie fan myself,” Stephenson confessed, “but the characters definitely caught my interest right from the beginning. Issue six, and that scene in particular, was kind of the point where I really got sucked in, though.”

Beyond the fiftieth issue, Image will continue to support “The Walking Dead” with trade paperbacks and hardcover omnibus editions. Stephenson says there are further things in the offing.” We have other things planned, definitely, and I do think there are opportunities yet to be taken advantage of by the title. Robert and I were talking about this recently, and I think we’ve only begun to explore all the publishing options for this book.”